


Iris and Chrysanthemums

by SundayZenith



Series: Professor L.E. Potter AU [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU where James and Lily live, Alternate Universe, Gen, I wrote this in like an hour at work, Like one swear I think, Likely OOC, Lily’s the potions master at Hogwarts, Platonic Relationships, Snape and Lily friendship, they loved each other platonically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 13:18:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19769014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SundayZenith/pseuds/SundayZenith
Summary: Lily and Severus meet at the Three Broomsticks.





	Iris and Chrysanthemums

**Author's Note:**

> Iris: Purity, cherished friendship 
> 
> Chrysanthemums: can symbolize loyalty or neglect as well as well-wishing and friendship. Also called “mums”

Severus was already seated by the time Lily walked into the Three Broomsticks. Life as a Curse Breaker seemed to do him well- he seemed like he wasn’t as on edge for once, as if the tightly bound strings that seemed to be all that held him together in their Hogwarts days had finally loosened. His hair was still as long as ever, but it was pulled back, not hiding his face. He didn’t look happy, but she hardly expected him to- the Three Broomsticks had always been Jimmy’s territory, after all.

Lily had sent him an owl, asking him to meet her there about a week ago. She had chosen the Three Broomsticks because it was warm, it was within walking distance from Hogwarts, it wouldn’t be too busy since it wasn’t a Hogsmeade weekend for the students, and a small part of her had wanted to put him out of his element. 

She reaches into her bag, running her hand over the cracked spine of the book in their, then pushes open the door.

“Sev,” she says, walking up behind him, hoping to catch him off guard but knowing she probably wouldn’t, and she didn’t. He turned to her slowly, a carefully crafted neutral look on his face.

“Lily Potter,” he says evenly. 

“Well, are you going to give me a hug or not?”

He gave her the same look he did when she had dared him to lick a bezoar, back when they were children- she snorted at the memory- but stood anyway. He had barely raised his arms when she threw herself at him, letting out a thin weeze as she lifted him off his toes. 

“So…,” she said, releasing him and taking a seat at the table. Rosmerta waved at them to let them know she’d be over in a few minutes. “Curse-breaking.”

He nodded.

“Exciting, isn’t it.”

“Depending on how you define ‘exciting.’ And you?”

“I teach now,” she said. “Potions.”

“So Professor Slughorn has finally realized exploiting children is hardly a path to fame then?” He asked, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the even and stuffy way he said it, as if he were Professor Binn in the midst of a thoroughly disinteresting lecture. 

“Something like that,” she grinned. She reached into a robe and pulled out a picture of her son, scratching the cat’s back hard enough to send fur flying as the cat shot the camera a look that clearly spoke of waning tolerance. “My boy, Harry. He’s just turned five.” She glances at him, gauging his reaction- that, more than anything, would decide whether this was a failed reunion.

For a moment he looks like he’s just spelled something rotten, and Lily prepares herself to pull out her wand and hex him if he dares say anything negative about her boy. Harry takes more after Jimmy than her as far as looks goes, and Lily doesn’t expect Severus to ever like Jimmy, but he doesn’t get to judge her son for something he didn’t do- not infront of her.

Perhaps reading her thoughts, his expression changes back to neutral, and he says, “Parenting Potter wasn’t enough for you?”

_ Smart man _ , She thinks as she elbows him playfully. “Fatherhood’s changed him, you know.”

“For the better, I hope, for Harry’s sake,” He casts her an amused look, “Especially since the most positive influence in his life is off teaching the next generation of potions masters.”

“Are you being sarcastic or an asshole? I still can’t tell.”

“Few can,” Severus was smiling in earnest, and Lily herself was having more fun than she expected.

“Motherhood’s hell,” she says dramatically. Severus was never one for playful theatrics, but her social group has consisted mainly of Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and a surprisingly sassy toddler up until recently. “Everybody’s always cooing over the kid, applauding him for being sarcastic and getting into everything.”

She immediately regrets saying this, remembering Severus’s less than happy boyhood- she had never met his father- Severus had made sure of that- and had only spoken to his mother a grand total of three times, but she knew better than anyone what his childhood was like. 

Despite the fact that Severus was, for a time, more like a sibling than Petunia was to her, they had never been great at communicating.

Instead, he says, “So you’re getting away from the responsibilities of one child… by taking on the responsibilities of hundreds of children?”

“A sarcastic asshole it is, then,” she looks down at the picture again. Harry had his arms wrapped around the cat’s middle now, face smushed in his fur. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get enough of his smile- its not like Jimmy’s or hers or her sister’s. Its something so completely beautiful and his own. Her voice softens, “In all seriousness, he's a great kid. I’ve had him shadow a few of my lessons. He’s so curious and I just want to show him  _ everything _ .”

“Great minds  _ can _ crop up anywhere,” Severus says. 

He rests his chin against his hand in a chow of carefully practised laziness after Rosmerta takes their drink orders. 

“Speaking of potions…,” Lily begins, and he sends her another amused look.

“I don’t suppose,” he says, and Lily is tempted to ask if he took lessons to learn how to speak so intently or if he rehearsed in a mirror of hours on end, “you invited me here to speak on the wonders of motherhood, then?”

“You wrote a book on potions,” she said, and she mentally calls herself stupid because once again she feels guilty. A vague but persistent sense of guilt has been prickling at her for over a year now, ever since she happened upon a very thick tome with the name Severus Snape writing in curling gold on the spine of a book in the potions section of a bookstore. She pulled it out.

She’s managed to surprise him. She suppresses the urge to poke him in the ribs and laugh about the stunned look on his face.

“I did,” he says.

“I use it for my NEWT students. It’s very good,” She looks down at his name on the cover. “I didn’t know Curse-breaking involved writing.”

“I… specialize in very specific curses,” he says carefully. “There are times- months- where my skills aren’t called for.”

“Dark?” she asks boldly.

“Perhaps.”

There’s a silence. 

Lily shakes her head and gets back on track. “If you have so much time on your hands, could you do me a favor?”

“You want me to write you something?” He guesses.

“A few somethings, actually.” She flips through the book. “I can’t exactly use this for my younger students, not with how complicated and- and Dark some of these potions are. Still, I can’t deny that the books we’re currently using are all that good on their own. Hogwarts is still using the same books  _ we _ used as students.”

That does the trick- Severus looks almost outraged on behalf of her students. She remembers many a lazy afternoon they’d spend by the lake, her half listening to him rant passionately about how wrong the potions books were.

_ “It’s as if that author has never stopped to consider the way the ingredients  _ actually  _ react with each other when combined in that fashion,” _ she remembers him saying.

“Do you think you could give my students something they can actually work with?”

“You want me to write five years work of potions recipes for you?” He asks incredulously.

“Right on the galleons,” she says. “Do it before next school year and I’ll make you co-godparent of my next child.”

He sputters for a moment before saying, “First, I don’t even like children.”

“You seem to like godfathering the Malfoy’s kid,” she pointed out.

He actually looks impressed. “Where did you learn that?”

“Grapevine,” she shrugs. She had gotten fairly close to Molly Weasley, a mother who had been in the Order with a couple kids Harry’s age, following the war, and Molly’s husband worked in the Ministry, were Lucius Malfoy frequented. “You’ll share godparenthood with Remus Lupin.”

He seemed put out by that. “Second, how do we know you’ll have another child.”

She shrugged again and took a swig of her drink.

“In all seriousness, Sev, if I have to ask my students to buy another set of books they’ll never use again, I’ll break down Dumbledor’s office, steal his phoenix, and set the bird on all of Diagon Alley.”

“I’ll see if I can make time for it,” he says.

“You made time for me.”

He didn’t say anything to that, just stared at her unblinking before looking away. The air felt warm, welcoming, and stifling, especially as more and more people began filtering in as the sun went down.

After a moment, she says, “Come on.” She takes his elbow. “I’ve got the day to myself. Walk with me.”

She pays and they walk outside. They stand there in silence for a moment before Lily pulls out another picture- a muggle one. “Petunia’s got a kid herself,” she says, and laughs at the horror on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: sunshine-zenith


End file.
